In the Gospel of Today We Heard the Encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan Woman. at The

THIRD SUNDAY OF LET (A)

In the Gospel of today we heard the encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman. At the timeof Jesus Samaritans and the Jews were bitter enemies, they hated one another and were not talking with one another. Moreover, Jesus was a rabbi and he was supposed not to talk with a woman in the absence of her husband. This Samaritan woman was also a public sinner, someone who had an immoral relationship with several men. Yet to the great surprise of the Samaritan woman Jesus not only initiated a conversation with her but also asked her for water to quench his thirst.Finally, at the end of the conversation Jesusas we see made her his missionary to her people.

The first lesson we learn from this story is that for Jesus no one is an outcast. He uses every opportunity to save the lost sheep. Jesus knows everything that happens in our life, he knows our past but that does not stop him from loving and seeking us.

The conversation began with water but as it is clear from the conversation they wear speaking about different kind of water. The woman spoke about water that satisfies our physical thirst, water that is essential to sustain our temporary life but Jesus used the chance to turn her attentionto the water that satisfies our spiritual hunger, the water that only he can give, the divine life, the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told the woman: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again but whoever drinks the water I give will not be thirsty again, it will spring up a well of living water in him, in her”. The woman gladly asked Jesus to give that water so that she need not come to the well again. Jesus then made her understand that she had to remove some obstacles from her life, Jesus made her aware of her sins which blocked her from receiving the water that will make her never thirst again.

Lent is season that constantly calls us to repentance, to be like Moses, as we heard in the first reading of today, to strike open the rock that blocks the flow of God’s grace into our life.

It is a time to strike the rock of hatred, envy, pride, anger, greed through acts of penance, confessions and works of charity, by changing the way we live. During this Eucharist let us asked the Lord to give us the grace to understand the blocks in our life and the courage to break them open.